Houston has one of the nation's highest rates of emergency room visits linked to abuse of popular prescription pain medications known as hydrocodone and sold as Vicodin or Lortab — all highly addictive and potentially lethal, particularly when mixed into narcotic cocktails, a comparison of major U.S. metro hospitals shows.

An estimated 305,885 people visited emergency rooms nationwide in 2008 for overdoses and other problems linked to prescription painkillers — an increase of 111 percent over the number of patients who sought help in 2004, according to the federal government's Drug Abuse Warning Network.

Most of the emergency visits involved hydrocodone or oxycodone — opiates better known to consumers by such brand names as Vicodin, Oxycontin and Percocet — and often the pills were improperly mixed with other medications or alcohol.

"It's a problem in the city, it's a problem in the suburbs and it's a problem in our rural areas because prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs are easier to get and there's less of a stigma," said Dr. Mark Escott, a Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor and full-time emergency doctor at Ben Taub hospital.

"People have a perception that it's less dangerous because (they) don't have to go to a drug dealer to get them," he added.

Nationally, about 60 percent of those emergency overdose visits are covered by taxpayers through Medicare, Medicaid or other government programs at an estimated cost of at least $700 million in 2007 alone, according to other U.S. government data.

"If they're coming in for an overdose, it's very expensive. First we have to sort out what they've taken — what's the offending agent. A lot of these folks end up in the ICU," Escott said.

He said he's seen an increasing number of patients who have overdosed, suffered liver failure linked to the acetaminophen (mixed with hydrocodone in many popular pain pills) or who exhibit drug-seeking behavior or psychiatric problems related to pain-pill addictions.

'Frequent fliers'

In Houston, an estimated 3,900 people rushed to emergency rooms for treatment related to abuse of all kinds of prescription narcotic pain pills in 2008, the DAWN data shows. Only about 317 of them later got referred to treatment or detox centers.

"It's a big problem, and we have to take more steps to address it or we're going to create more of what we call 'frequent fliers' - people who keep going back to the emergency rooms for overdoses," said Mel Taylor, president and CEO of the nonprofit Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston. "Ultimately, if you keep doing this long enough, people die. That's the outcome other than recovery."

Taking too many pain pills — or mixing them with alcohol or anti-anxiety drugs like alprazolam (Xanax) — can dangerously depress a victim's respiration rates and cause death.

Rates of emergency room visits linked to misuse of alprazolam in Houston also are consistently the highest of 12 of the largest metropolitan areas who report to DAWN, the data show.

Emergency room visits for all kinds of pain medications increased in all major cities from 2004-08, rising 52 percent in Houston, 79 percent in San Francisco and 294 percent in Denver, according to DAWN.

Houston woman's death

Houston's Charles Seigle tried hard to save his own wife, repeatedly taking her to local emergency rooms when she became unresponsive from taking too many pain pills. Twice, he called 911.

In the end, a cocktail of medications killed her anyway. In February, he found her in the living room, slumped in a recliner with the remote still in her hand. She was dead at 42.

"It's a huge epidemic," Seigle said. "When my wife died, it was a real eye-opener. Many of my friends told me they had family members with prescription drug problems. But nobody ever talks about it."

An overdose of pain medication can look like a harmless deep sleep, though some victims began to snore or breathe unusually loudly. Eventually, blood-oxygen levels drop dangerously and the heart stops. If administered in time, a drug called naloxone, often carried in ambulances, can quickly block the effect of an opiate on the brain.

Yet nearly 250 people died of prescription drug accidental overdoses last year in Harris County alone.

Problems linked to misuse of such drugs present "significant financial costs to society in addition to the costs to individuals and families," according to a report issued by the Food and Drug Administration in June.

FDA experts are considering a proposed ban on some forms of pain pills that contain acetaminophen. They've also recommended additional training for physicians who prescribe long-acting variations of the drugs.

Pain pills also have been linked to a nationwide wave of accidental overdose deaths.